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ADDRESS 



HON. ALLEN 6: THURMAN, 



DELIVERED UEhOKE THE 



Maryland Agricultural and Mechanical Association, 



PIMLICO, NEAR BALTIMORE, MD., 



OCTOBER 8, 1874. 



■ 



WASHINGTON : 

S. Sf H- P- f OLKINHORN, f RINTERS, 

1874. 



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<5 



Rooms of Maryland Aoricultural and Mechanical Association, 
S. W. Comer of Fayette and Eutaw Streets, 

Baltimore, October 8, 1874. 

Hon. A. G. Thurman, 

Dear Sir : — On behalf of the Executive Committee of Maryland 
State Agricultural and Mechanical Association, I most heartily thank 
you for the elaborate and instructive address delivered before our Asso- 
ciation, this day, and ask for a copy thereof, for publication. 
I am, dear sir, 

Very truly yours, 

A. B. DAVIS, 

President. 



October 8, 1874. 
Dear Sir : 

In compliance with your polite request, I herewith send you 
a copy of the Address. 

Very truly, 

Your obedient servant, 

A. G. THURMAN. 
Hon. A. B. Davis, 

President. 



6 

you feel it most sensibly every day of your lives ; for 
they, combined with agriculture, contribute your daily 
bread, and not that alone but also a multitude of com- 
forts and pleasures that tend to solace the toil of labor 
and to make life pleasant and desirable. Grateful, then, 
as the theme would be to the speaker ; wide as is the field 
it offers for oratorical display; agreeable as it would be 
to you to listen to a beautiful and harmonious discourse 
upon it, as you would listen with delight to a strain of 
glorious music, I, who am but a plain spoken man, and 
by nature and habit an economist of time, must leave it 
to others more highly gifted b} 7 nature and improved by 
practice, in the pleasing and winning arts of eloquence. 
But if I do not appear before you as a rhetorician much 
less do I staud here to-day as a teacher. I see before me 
hundreds, perhaps thousands, better qualified to instruct 
me in the arts of agriculture and mechanics than I am 
to instruct them, and I shall not be so presumptuous as 
to attempt to teach nry masters. I am fully aware of 
the wonderful proficiency in agriculture achieved by 
politicians since the Granger movement began, — an acqui- 
sition of knowledge whose rapidity has no parallel since 
the Almighty bestowed upon the apostles the gift of 
tongues. But as no miracle has been performed in my 
behalf, my previous ignorance unfortunately remains, 
and should you see fit to subject me to an examination 
in either agriculture or mechanics, I very much fear that 
I should fail to pass, even though your rules were as 
flexible, convenient and accommodating as those of a 
civil service commission. 

Without further preface, I propose, my hearers, to 
offer for your consideration some reflections that have 
no claim to originality, but which may, nevertheless, bear 
frequent repetition, and to state some facts in relation to 
our own country that seem to me to be worthy of your 
attention. 



He who has not read and thought upon the subject is 
likely to be startled at the assertion of profound and 
learned men, that the oldest pursuit of the human race 
has been the slowest in its scientific developement, and 
that, although the art of agriculture has been practiced 
with success for many thousand years, the science of 
agriculture is of recent origin and dates back but little 
more than a century. But strange as the assertion may 
seem, and unwilling as we may be to give it our full 
assent, yet the more thoroughly and candidly we investi- 
gate and study it, the more strongly we become con- 
vinced of its probable truth. 

The reflections that arise upon a consideration of this 
fact, if fact it be, instead of being gloomy avid despond- 
ent are precisely the reverse. Instead of being dis- 
couraged by the slow progress formerly made through 
so many centuries, we naturally say that if agriculture 
thrived and grew while laboring under the disadvantages 
of imperfect knowledge and unscientific methods, what 
must be its progress in the future when aided by the dis- 
coveries and application of science, the general dissemi- 
nation of knowledge and the combined efforts of able, 
earnest and instructed minds. It is the utterance of a 
truism to say that the human intellect is limited in its 
scope, but it is no less true to affirm that in no depart- 
ment whatever of knowledge has it reached its limit. 
And certainly he would be a most short sighted reasoner 
who should affirm that agriculture is an exception to the 
general rule of progress, and that in respect to it there 
is nothing more to learn. It would be much more philo- 
sophical to conclude that old as it is in years it is yet in 
its infancy. 

That the cultivation of various parts of the earth was 
successfully carried on in very ancient times, is manifest 
from the historic fact of their great populations, whose 
food must have been mainly supplied by a productive 



agriculture. That it was carried to a very high decree 
of excellence in Egypt, we learn from history, both 
sacred and profane. That it was well-known and practiced 
in India is attested by her wonderful system of irriga- 
tion, yet extant, and unequalled in extent in any other 
portion of the globe. 

The most ancient writings of the Chinese, old as they 
are asserted to be, fail to give us an idea of the remote 
antiquity of their successful agriculture. We read in 
the Old Testament of the corn and the threshing floors, 
the vineyards and the wine presses, the flocks and the 
herds, nay, of the cattle upon a thousand hills of the 
Hebrew people. 

We find in our libraries Greek and Roman works on 
agriculture, written before the christian era, and from 
which instruction may be derived by the most enlight- 
ened and skilfull farmer of to-day. What should be the 
size of a farm ; what its proportions of arable, pasture, 
meadow and woodland ; what crops and manures are best 
suited to different soils; what advantages are derived 
from open and underground drainage; when should irri- 
gation be practiced, and what are its results ; what are 
the benefits derived from land lying fallow ; from deep 
and frequent plowings; from a rotation of crops: from 
turning under green grasses ; from burning the stubble ; 
are questions, among many, discussed in these works, 
and which are subjects of yet more elaborate discussion 
after a lapse of more than two thousand years. Nor was 
stock breeding and the care and preservation of stock 
overlooked, and when we read of raising pigeons, not for 
their flesh merely, but for the very superior manure they 
furnished, and when we learn how carefully this man- 
ure was pulverized, prepared for use by an admixture 
with earths, and then skillfully and without waste ap- 
plied, the modern word " guano " almost involuntarily 
comes to our lips, and we think of the wonders it has 



9 

achieved upon many an exhausted field of our native 
land. 

But gratifying as this picture of ancient cultivation 
may appear, there is another side to it in which it was 
lamentably deficient. For want of the mechanical in- 
vention and skill by which our age is so justly and 
highly distinguished, the implements of agriculture 
used by the ancients were so far inferior to ours that 
could they be produced before you to-day, not all the 
good they once accomplished could save them from your 
wonder and ridicule. Here it is that inventive genius 
and the mechanic arts have contributed directly and 
most beneficially to promote the cultivation of the soil 
as we see it practiced in our day, and this is another 
proof of the universal rule that the benefits of knowl- 
edge and skill in whatever department of human effort 
are not confined to that department alone, but are surely 
felt, in a greater or less degree, in every other human 
pursuit. 

Another difficulty with the ancients was a want of sci- 
entific knowledge. " Science," saysWhewell, "is a body 
of principles and deductions to explain the nature of 
some matter. An art is a body of precepts with practi- 
cal skill for the completion of some work. A science 
teaches us to know ; an art to do." Or, as defined by 
others, science is knowledge, art is the application of 
knowledge to some useful or ornamental purpose. 

An art maybe highly productive though some of its pre- 
cepts be false ; but it will inevitably be more productive if 
all of them be true. And here comes in the great office of 
science which is to discover and teach absolute verity. 
And then it is the office of art to apply the discoveries so 
as to produce the greatest practical results. Science 
without art is an unused treasure — a diamond buried in 
the earth. Art without science is work without knowl- 
edge — a ship without a compass. It is frequently said 

9 



10 

that there is no absolute verity outside of the mathe- 
matics, or rather that mathematical truths are the only 
truths that can be certainly demonstrated; and hence the 
application of the term, " exact science, " to the mathe- 
matics. But the observation is entitled to little weight; 
for there are truths in all the sciences as capable of sat- 
isfactory demonstration for all practical purposes as any 
problemin geometry. For that demonstration is sufficient 
and may be safely acted upon, that leaves no room for a 
reasonable doubt. Hence we properly speak of scientific 
agriculture, meaning a cultivation of the earth in accor- 
dance with indubitable principles discovered by science. 
But a discovery of these principles involves deductions 
from a vast body of facts that must be collected, studied, 
analyzed and compared; and it is, perhaps, not going too 
far to say that this could not be done before the dis- 
covery of the art of printing. With the same propri- 
ety we speak of mechanical science, or that body of 
learning that enables the inventor to invent and the 
artisan to work in obedience to fixed and immutable 
laws of nature. 

What I have just said will suggest some of the reasons 
for the tardy growth of agricultural science, but there 
are maivy others to be taken into the account. The more 
important ot them are admirably stated by Hoskyns 
in his able introductory essay to Morton's Cyclopedia 
of Agriculture, and I feel that I cannot do better than 
to briefly repeat the substance of some of his observa- 
tions : 

" Applauded, ? ' says he, "from the earliest chronicled 
ages as the first of arts, agriculture had reached our own, 
perhaps the least advanced of any, by direct scientific in- 
vestigation. " Laudatur, et alget," the terse expression of 
the satirist, might be taken as its truest motto, and its 
antiquity and importance be asserted in no very triumph- 
ant tone; for if both be, as they always have been, ad- 
mitted, its history compared with that of other arts from 



11 



the earliest ages, seems only to present the greater anom- 
aly to the mind of the enquirer. If we trace the progress 
of what are called the physical siences, those tor instance 
of astronomy and geometry, from the early days ot Egypt- 
ian learning, or the history of navigation and commerce 
from the Phoenicians, the fine arts from the Athenian 
ao-e the art of war, Colonial conquest, and civilization, 
ffom the Romans, mathematical science from the age ot 
Saracenic conquest, or follow the course of advancing 
knowledge in Europe, from a point no further back than 
the invention of printing— it is impossible to escape the 
unfavorable comparison exhibited by that very pursuit 
whose universal necessity, while it affords the strongest 
excitement to progress, might reasonably be expected to 
have furnished the fullest development ot its resources. 

He then proceeds to enumerate some of the causes 
that " have operated to retard the accumulation of agri- 
cultural knowledge," namely, variety of climate, variety 
of soil, the geological structure of the earth, difference of 
elevation, isolation of the farmer, and the length of time 
needed for experiment, to which it seems to me should 
be added the prevalence of war, the lack of intercourse be- 
tween nations, the want of the "art preservative of arts," 
printing, the comparative ignorance of geology, miner- 
alogy, chemistry and physiology, and the non-existence 
of the thermometer, barometer and wonder revealing 
microscope. 

Obviously all these causes operated to prevent that 
accumulation, analysis and comparison of facts on a 
grand scale, by which alone great and general truths and 
principles can be discovered and established. 

The cultivator of the rich valley of the Nile naturally 
felt contempt for regions unfruitful when compared with 
his own, and without seeking to penetrate beyond the 
limits of his vision, was content with the knowledge and 
skill that seemed all sufficient for him. 

The cultivator in less favored lands also plied his art 
according to the local traditionary precepts that had been 



12 

handed down to him from the fathers, little knowing and 
little caring what knowledge had heen acquired or what 
modes were pursued in other parts of the earth. And 
when at length intelligent men began to observe, and to 
record and compare observations, the field of their in- 
quiries was generally very limited and their conclusions, 
however valuable in their immediate localities, were often 
of little or no use elsewhere; and their reflections, how- 
ever brilliant, acute and profound, served to discover and 
establish but few rules of general, much less of universal, 
application. 

"The modifications of practice," says Hoskyns, "oc- 
casioned by climate on a large scale have been again par- 
celled over smaller areas by variety of soil. Not only 
does the agriculture of a southern temperature vary ma- 
terially from that of the north, but even in the same coun- 
try and province the code of practice which would ap- 
ply to a light soil would be immediately at fault when 
attempted on a clay: and thus, the geological structure 
of the earth, again subdivided by difference of eleva- 
tion, occasioning effects analogous to those of different 
latitude or climate, would all tend, as we find they have 
done, to retard that codification of results by which the 
edifice of a science can alone be reared." 

The isolation of the farmer is the next cause assigned 
by the writer, and which, before the discovery of print- 
ing, operated with far greater force than it does now. 

Collision of mind with mind is one of the most fruit- 
ful agencies in the acquisition of knowledge, and is in- 
dispensable for the correction of errors into which the 
solitary thinker is so liable to fall. And, therefore, a 
mode of life that tends to segregate men has been very 
generally considered a serious obstacle to the progress 
of science. That this obstacle has been almost overcome 
in modern times is a cause for profound congratulation, 
and that one of the chief agents in overcoming it are 
the Agricultural and Mechanical Associations like that 
which I now address, is patent to even the most casual 



13 

observer. But no such associations, nor anything like 
them, were known to antiquity. In all that vast body 
of writings, called Ancient History and Literature, there 
cannot be found, I believe, a single trace of such an insti- 
tution. 

The next cause assigned by Iloskyns can be best 
stated in his own words, whose brevity and point cannot 
be improved. He says : — 

"But even under the pressure of increasing numbers, 
advancing intelligence, and the utmost comparative uni- 
formity of soil and climate, another retarding influence 
clogs the wheels of agricultural progress : namely, the 
length of time needed for experiment. A main cause of 
the brisk advancement and general spirit of improve- 
ment observed in other arts and manufactures is to be 
found in the rapidity with which, in their case, effects 
follow their causes. The advantage of a simpler or 
more compendious process is at once seen in result ; and 
the invention is speedily applied by others who are in- 
terested in its adoption ; but such could hardl}' be hoped 
for in the case .of an art where each question that we ask 
of nature takes a year or more for its solution ; and up- 
on which no ordinary degree of exact memory, patience 
and cooperation for experiment, are required, even to 
put them in such a manner as to render the replies ser- 
viceable or conclusive." ***** 

"Yet, though exalted powers of perception, supported 
Dy indefatigable zeal and labor, have enabled individual 
minds to overthrow and reconstruct the received opin- 
ions of mankind in particular departments of lniman 
knowledge, this could only happen where the results 
achieved by intuitive genius or great inventive powers 
could at once make apparent and attest their own truth 
and accuracy. A Newton, a Hervey, a Columbus, a Watt, 
a Davy or a Bacon, might each revolutionize, in the span 
of a single life, the opinions of mankind, upon the great 
subjects of their respective inspiration ; but it was scarce- 
ly within the compass of a single mind to achieve dis- 
coveries of corresponding magnitude, in an art whose 
experiments reach over periods which exhaust human 
life for their solution, and refer to the whole catalogue 
of the sciences for the principles on which they depend." 



14 

I have alluded to the prevalence of war as a potent 
obstacle to agricultural progress. " War and the chase " 
have been called " the two ancient and deadliest foes to 
agriculture," and, unfortunately, the history of mankind 
fully justifies the observation. To say nothing of those 
great wars of conquest in which whole countries were 
ravaged and laid waste, and barbarism, or semi-barbarism, 
supplanted civilization ; or of civil wars that banished 
for the time almost ever} r security of life or property; 
it would be sufficient to reflect that waste is an attendant 
of every war however well and humanely conducted ; 
that the rank and file of every army are able bodied 
laborers withdrawn from productive industry; and that 
every war, however brief, involves increased taxation, and 
every modern war an increase of national indebtedness; 
to see that war is a deadly foe to agriculture. When 
the taxes levied in a country are no more than is neces- 
sary to support a government honestly and economically 
administered, the people are amply repaid for what they 
give, by the preservation of order, the protection of per- 
sons and property, and the due and proper administra- 
tion of justice. When the amount levied exceeds this 
sum, but the excess is wisely expended in permanent 
works of improvement, the taxpayer has some remunera- 
tion, large or small, for his contribution to the State. 
But when millions, tens of millions, perhaps hundreds 
of millions are levied, not to defray the ordinary expenses 
of government, not to improve and enrich the Territory 
of the State, but to pay the cost of havoc and destruc- 
tion, then, however just the tax may be, it cannot fail to 
burthen industry in all its ramifications. No honest peo- 
ple will repudiate their obligations whether of war or of 
peace, and hence the greater the necessity for cultiva- 
ting a spirit of harmony and avoiding the dreadful and 
costly arbitrament of the sword, as long as the honor 
and interest of the country will permit. But such are 



15 

the passions of mankind, and such have been the ambi- 
tion or folly of rulers, that we cannot point to a single 
day since the history of the race began to be written, 
when peace prevailed in every part of the Globe. 

That the want of communication between different 
peoples, and even between the people of different por- 
tions of the same country, materially retarded the acqui- 
sition of knowledge, is obviousl} 7 true, and presents a 
contrast between ancient and modern times so striking 
as to excite feelings approaching to wonder. In ancient 
literature we find volumes upon volumes of history, 
politics, the art of war, philosophy, mathematics, and 
the drama ; and poems whose grandeur and beauty 
have never been surpassed, possibly never been equalled, 
by any similar productions of human genius. But, with 
a few meager exceptions, we look in vain for books of 
travels ; and those we do find are almost, or wholly, des- 
titute of practical, much less scientific, value. But in 
our day there is no expense too great to be incurred, no 
hardships too great to be endured, in order to extend our 
knowledge of even the remotest portions of the globe. 
Neither the heat of the Torrid Zone or the ice of the 
Arctic Circle, the hostility of savages or the yet greater 
dangers of disease, serve to deter our adventurous 
travellers, who, in the interest of commerce or of science, 
penetrate every spot accessible to the human foot. The 
highest mountains of the Avorld have been measured by 
human science, the greatest rivers followed and explored 
from their fountains to the sea, the most extensive and 
barren deserts traversed and described, and almost every 
island of the ocean, perhaps every one, visited, designa- 
ted, and marked upon our charts. But what shall we 
say of the intercourse between the civilized portions of 
earth; of the thousands of travellers who annually pass 
from one country to another, for either profit or pleasure, 
and who return to their homes with an accumulation of 



16 

knowledge derived, not from the relations of others, but 
from their own actual observations. Add to this the 
changes of residence produced by an unexampled peace- 
ful migration ; see hundreds of thousands of hardy emi- 
grants leaving the old world for the shores of America 
or far distant Australia; witness the multitudes in our 
own country who annually remove from the older 
to the newer States, or yet newer Territories; and reflect 
that each of these emigrants carries to his new home 
something of the knowledge, both theoretical and prac- 
ical, of the home he left, and you will have some idea of 
the vast diffusion of intelligence that uecessarily results 
from these causes. Ancient history presents no such 
spectacle, nor anything approaching it; for though we 
read of vast migrations stretching from the mountains 
and plains of Asia to the shores of the Mediterranean 
and the Atlantic, the story is alwaj^s the same — it is of 
w T ar and of conquest, of havoc and of destruction, of the 
overthrow of civilization and the spread of barbarism, 
and not of the diffusion of knowledge, the progress of 
arts and of science, the improvement of the earth and 
its greater yield, the bettered condition of the human 
race and the spread of peace and good will among men. 
But it was not in remote times alone that the want of 
intercourse among the cultivators of the soil was serious- 
ly felt. It is felt even to this da} 7 , and was experienced 
in a far greater degree as late as fifty years ago. In an 
address delivered in 1869, Professor Buckland, said: 

" I can remember the time when large numbers of Eng- 
lish farmers seldom went beyond the boundary of their 
own county ; some even hardly passed the limits of 
their own or the adjoining parish. What a change 
has been effected since the introduction of the railway ? 
Farmers may now be seen travelling hundreds of miles 
to an exhibition, or in company as members of a club 
paying periodic visits to inspect the practices of distin- 
guished individuals of their craft in differents parts of 



17 

the country." And he adds with great truth, "A little 
perambulating of this sort has a most salutary effect in 
enlarging the farmer's circle of observation, enabling 
him to gain new ideas, to break loose from traditional 
prejudices, and to improve his practice by adapting it to 
the new lights which science and enlarged experience 
throw across his path." 

What is here said of the perambulations of the far- 
mers of England may be repeated, with more emphasis, 
of our own countrymen; for of all the dwellers upon our 
planet there are none so addicted to locomotion as the 
people of the United States. In a country with 13,000 
miles of coast along which thousands of vessels ply from 
port to port; in a country traversed in every direction by 
navigable streams on which the steamboat is seldom 
long out of sight; in a country with 70,000 miles of 
railway in operation and uncounted miles of turnpike 
roads ; in a community of thirty seven States and ten 
Territories, between which unrestricted free trade exists ; 
with a population whose related members are scattered 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific — a father, for instance, 
in Maryland, a son in Missouri, a grandson in Cali- 
fornia or Oregon, all drawn by natural affection to desire 
from time to time, each other's society — it is not strange 
that Americans are by far the greatest travellers in the 
world. And as to the inducements offered to the far- 
mer, by agricultural and mechanical societies and exhi- 
bitions, to leave his home for a brief period each year, 
and improve his knowledge by discussion, observation 
and comparison, in no country are they so great as in 
the United States ; for in no other country do such asso- 
ciations and exhibitions abound to the same extent. 

But if the friendly personal intercourse of mankind 
has increased in so wonderful a degree in modern times, 
the growth of their intellectual intercourse is yet more 
remarkable and striking. Compare, or rather contrast, 
the slow and toilsome practice of manuscript writing, by 
3 



18 

which facts and thoughts were formerly recorded, with 
the marvelous product of the steam printing press, and 
your wonder will be not that the ancients knew so little, 
hut that, with such imperfect means, they learned so 
much; and you will readily acknowledge that not until 
the discovery of the art of printing was it possible to get 
together and compile a grand record of facts and ex- 
periments, under different climates, at different altitudes, 
in different soils, and under a multitude of varying con- 
ditions, from which the man of science might deduce 
general agricultural truths, and without which his 
efforts would be comparatively vain. 

I have thus very briefly and imperfectly remarked upon 
some of the reasons for the slow growth of agricultural 
knowledge. But there is one of them which I have only 
mentioned, about which a word, at least, should be said. 
" Chemistry,'" says the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, " as a 
regular branch of natural science, is of comparatively re- 
cent origin, and can hardly be said to date from an ear- 
lier period than the latter third of the past century. * * 
From the very nature of chemistry it was impossible that 
it should take a truly scientific form until the balance 
was applied to it," which was first done by Lavoisier a 
little more than one hundred years ago. But, in the 
opinion of many of the ablest writers on the subject, 
there cannot be, without the application of chemistry, 
a true and perfect scientific agriculture; and hence Ag- 
ricultural Chemistry forms a part of the regular course 
of instruction in all schools in Europe and America, in- 
stituted for the purpose of promoting agricultural knowl- 
edge. And here it may be well to notice an objection, 
which though often made and often answered, is yet fre- 
quently repeated and perhaps will ever be. 

How, says one, can a farmer, engaged from youth to 
old age in manual labor on his farm, acquire this scien- 
tific knowledge, so much vaunted and said to be so ne- 



19 

cessary ? How can he find time and opportunity to mas- 
ter geology, chemistry, botany and physiology, and ap- 
ply them in his >daily pursuit ? And if success in his 
calling is dependent on his profound knowledge of these 
sciences, how can he ever hope to succeed ? The an- 
swer to these questions is plain to him who observes and 
reflects. Every farmer is not expected to master either 
of these sciences, any more than he is expected to mas- 
ter astronomy. But it does not follow because every 
man is not, and cannot be an astronomer, that therefore 
the truths of astronomy are useless, and Galileo, Kepler, 
and Newton lived in vain. Every man cannot become 
a mathematician, but who is there bold enough to deny 
the value of mathematical science ? And so every man 
cannot become a chemist, but the truths of chemistry 
may nevertheless prove immensely serviceable to him. 

In all the sciences there are numerous principles and 
results that may be learned and remembered by a little 
application and that men habitually recognize and act 
upon without being able to demonstrate the truth of a 
single one of them. How many ships are safely navi- 
gated from continent to continent, in accordance with 
rules deduced by astronomical and mathematical science, 
which rules the navigator obeys without understanding 
the reasons of their existence. 

How many artisans shape their works in obedience to 
geometrical laws who never in their lives saw a demon- 
stration of the truth of those laws. And so when the 
chemist, botanist or physiologist discovers a truth of 
value to the agriculturalist, the latter may learn the fact 
and successfully apply it though ignorant of the process 
by which it was discovered. We all of us act upon this 
principle every day of our lives. We take that to be 
law which the judge declares is law, because we have 
confidence in his honesty, ability and learning. For the 
same reasons we take the potion that our physician pre- 



20 

scribes, although we know nothing of its elements or the 
reasons for giving it. 

We build a machine in conformity to a drawing fur- 
nished by the inventor, and it accomplishes the desired 
purpose, however ignorant the builder may be of the 
mechanical laws that make it effective. 

In like manner the cultivator profits by the discove- 
ries of science, however small may be his own scientific 
knowledge. But while I insist upon the obvious truth 
that it is not necessary that every farmer should be a 
scientist, I am very far from going to the opposite ex- 
treme and asserting that it is immaterial whether he has 
anv scientific knowledge at all. On the contrarv, I believe 
that every intelligent farmer and mechanic unavoidably 
acquires a large amount of scientific knowledge, and 
which is none the less science because he may not call it 
by that name. 

And I believe that this knowledge may be largely and 
beneficially increased without encroaching too much on 
the time necessarily devoted to manual labor. Science 
is another name for knowledge, and art, as I have said, 
is an application of knowledge and skill to produce a 
desired result. And it is precisely by this combination 
of science and art, of knowledge and practical skill, that 
the highest excellence is attained and the greatest re- 
sults are achieved. I know many intelligent, laborious 
farmers who may with truth be called scientific cultiva- 
tors, and many clear-headed, hard working, mechanics, 
who may, with equal truth, be called scientific artisans ; 
and it is one of the most pleasing and encouraging facts 
of the age that these classes of men — thanks to the diffu- 
sion of knowledge and a higher estimate of the dignity 
of labor and of the useful arts — are steadily on the in- 
crease. And it is by far the greatest merit, gentlemen, 
of associations like yours that they promote the growth 
of such men and increase their usefulness from year to 



21 

year, nay from day to day. When we reflect that not 
one farthing can be added to the wealth of the world 
without the intervention of labor, we must, were we but 
seltish men, rejoice at whatever tends to elevate the call- 
ing, promote the knowledge, increase the usefulness, 
and add to the comforts and well-being of the laboring 
man. But there is a higher principle than selfishness 
that calls upon us to rejoice at his prosperity — a princi- 
ple of kindness, of benevolence, of humanity; an as- 
piration for a brighter future, and an increase of happi- 
ness for all mankind. 

Of the wonderful progress made in the agricultural 
and mechanical arts within the last hundred years, I 
have no time to speak in detail. The progressive move- 
ment has not been confined to any one country — in a 
greater or less degree it has pervaded, and yet pervades, 
the whole civilized world. One hundred years ago there 
was not a mile of iron railroad on the globe ; not a boat, 
ship or mill propelled by steam; no electric telegraph; no 
cylinder press ; no stereotype ; no cotton gin ; no steam 
power loom — the improved plough now in use, the culti- 
vator, the reaper and mower, and the grain elevator, 
were all unknown, as well as a multitude of other in- 
ventions that now lessen or facilitate the labors of man- 
kind. 

But these are not the only evidences of rapid and in- 
creasing improvement. Some idea of the growing de- 
votion of mincl to agricultural studies may be derived 
from the fact that out of one thousand and thirty-two 
volumes on agriculture and its closely related arts and 
sciences, now in the library of Congress, nine hundred 
and forty were printed within the present century. More 
than one hundred periodicals, newspapers included, de- 
voted to the same subjects, are now published in the 
United States alone, not one of which was published 
before the year 1800. Over one thousand four hundred 



22 

agricultural societies and farmers' clubs now exist in the 
States and Territories, but very few of which existed 
only fifty years ago, and the number rapidly increases 
with each revolving year. Agricultural colleges and 
schools, and mechanics' institutes, are almost everywhere 
to be found, and no one can foresee a limit to their num- 
bers or usefulness. Thousands of patents are annually 
granted by the Government for mechanical inventions or 
improvements, and though comparatively few of them 
may be either novel or useful, the value of others is uni- 
versally acknowledged, and the activity of mind and in- 
crease of knowledge they display cannot be too highly 
appreciated. Each census shows an enlarged agricultu- 
ral and mechanical production ; and though, from time 
to time, it may be retarded by temporary causes, the 
grand result shows a ratio of increase at least equal to, 
if not greater than, that of the population. From 1850 
to 1860, the increase of population was a fraction over 
■35| per cent. In the same ten years the number of 
farms increased from one million four hundred and 
forty-nine thousand and seventy-three to two million 
forty-four thousand and seventy-seven, being an increase 
of 41 per cent. ; and the area of improved lands from 
one hundred and thirteen to one hundred and sixty- 
three million acres, being an increase of over 44 per cent. 
From 1860 to 1870, owing to the war, the ratios of in- 
crease diminished, that of population being only 22-j^ per 
cent., that of the number of farms 30^ per cent., and 
that of the area of improved lands 15^- per cent. — 
another striking proof of the injurious effects of war upon 
agriculture. But, nevertheless, there were one million 
two hundred and ten thousand nine hundred and twelve 
more farms in 1870, than there were in 1850 and seventy- 
five million, eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand 
four hundred and eighty-five more acres of improved 
laud — an increase in twenty years that, under the cir- 



23 

cumstances, is without a parallel in the history of the 
world. 

And here I desire to call your attention to another 
fact of much significance. It is a very general opinion 
that a subdivision of land into small farms is highly con- 
ducive to good cultivation, and we hear the remark fre- 
quently made that the farms in the United States are too 
large. 

I do not propose to discuss the question "how minute 
should be the subdivision of the land," or in other words, 
" what is the best average size of farms," but I wish to 
say that the evil of farms of too great size in our country 
is much less than seems to be generally supposed, and is 
steadily diminishing from year to year as is conclusively 
shown by our census reports. Thus, of the whole num- 
ber of forms in 1860 nearly 41 per cent, were farms of 
less than fifty acres each ; of the whole number in 1870, 
nearly 50 per cent, contained less than fifty acres each. 
In 1860, 70 J per cent, were under one hundred acres. 
In 1870, 78 per cent. Between 1860 and 1870, the num- 
ber of farms of three acres and under ten was more than 
doubled; those of ten acres and under twenty increased 
from 162,178 to 294,607; over 81 percent. Those of 
twenty acres and under fifty, from 616,558 to 847,614, 
equal to 37f per cent, nearly; those of fifty and under one 
hundred acres from 608,878 to 754,251, 24 per cent, near- 
ly ; those of one hundred and under five hundred, from 
487,041 to 565,054— equal to 16 per cent; while those 
of five hundred acres and under one thousand, decreased 
from 20,319 to 15,873; and those of one thousand 
acres and upwards fell off from 5,634 to 3,720. It 
is thus apparent that the small farms multiply much 
more rapidly than the large ones, and that the smaller 
they are, the greater is the ratio of their increase, while 
the number of the very large ones, instead of increasing, 
is undergoing a rapid diminution. The economist will 



24 

find in these facts some alleviation of his fear that our lands 
will be too much engrossed, while the statesman, observ- 
ing how large a proportion of farms are owned by their 
cultivators, will see in this happy circumstance one of 
the most powerful conservators of peace, order, freedom 
and good and stable government. 

Mr. President and gentlemen, I am neither an opti- 
mist nor an enthusiast, but, despite the clouds that lower 
o'er our horizon, I think that I can see a future for our 
country more prosperous and happy than has yet befallen 
any portion of the human race. I think that I can see 
more bread for the hungry, more education for the igno- 
rant, more enjoyment for the weary, more respect for 
labor, a more widely diffused intelligence and a greater 
material and intellectual progress than the world has yet 
known. It may be a dream of the fane} 7 , but it is one 
that I cherish and fondly hope that I may never see dis- 
pelled. Should it prove to be reality, one of its chief 
causes will be the continued growth of those arts whose 
promotion is the object of your time honored association. 
And as a grateful posterity will not fail to honor the 
memories of the men whose intelligence and energy fur- 
thered the mighty work, I may safely predict for your 
society — already ,jso distinguished and so worthy of your 
great State — that title — the noblest of all earthly dis- 
tinctions — A Benefactor of Mankind. 




ADDRESS 




OF 



HON. ALLEN G/THURMAN, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



AT 



PIMLICO, NEAR BALTIMORE, MD., 



OCTOBER 8, 1874. 




WASHINGTON: 

j3, &j ft. p. J^OLKINHORN, j^RINTERS, 

1874. 




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